MELA Foundation

MELA Foundation is a New York City-based non-profit arts organization under the artistic directorship of La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela dedicated to the creation, exhibition, and maintainance of interdisciplinary works in the fields of music and visual art. MELA is the home of Dream House, an extended duration sound and light environment by La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. MELA is also the home of the Kirana Center for Indian Classical Music, which was founded by Pandit Pran Nath and is now under the directorship of his disciples La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela.

From the official MELA Foundation website:

MELA Foundation, founded in May 1985, is a not-for-profit interdisciplinary arts organization designed to encourage creative work in the fields of music, the visual arts, and other media; to explore the applications of advanced technologies to artistic expression; and to present major contemporary works and extended duration art installations that eliminate the boundaries between artistic disciplines. The Foundation is also devoted to the development and maintenance of extensive archives documenting the work of some of the central figures in the world of contemporary art. MELA has produced and organized more than 150 events since its inception, including performances, exhibitions, installations, recordings, film screenings, video and radio presentations, teaching, research and publications. MELA has presented the La Monte Young 30-Year Retrospective, the one-year La Monte Young / Marian Zazeela Sound and Light Environment at Dia, The Theatre of Eternal Music Big Band, annual Pandit Pran Nath Raga Cycle concerts, Richard Maxfield, Terry Jennings and Angus MacLise memorial concerts, The Forever Bad Blues Band concerts and tours, concerts and installations in Paris, Berlin, Venice, Krems, London, Lyon, Bologna, Avignon, Polling and other European cities, and produced several landmark recordings. MELA produced and maintains the continuous environment Dream House: Seven+Eight Years of Sound and Light at its 275 Church Street exhibition space, open to the public Thursdays and Saturdays, 2:00 pm to midnight, from Fall Equinox through Summer Solstice. MELA is also the home of the Kirana Center for Indian Classical Music, which was founded by Pandit Pran Nath and is now under the directorship of La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. MELA is under the artistic directorship of La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela.

The name MELA references the Sanskrit word mela, which has the meanings of consonance, harmonizing, combining, gathering together, and is etymologically related to milana, the verb: to tune. In addition, MELA forms the acronym for Music Eternal Light Art.